1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wine racks and, more particularly, wine racking devices.
2. Background of the Invention
Traditional wine racks stored bottles of wine in square or circular compartments, to maximize the number of bottles that could be stored against a wall. These compartments extended orthogonally from the wall such that wine bottles were inserted base first, with only the mouth and cork of the bottle visible from the outside. This was problematic to a person trying to select a wine bottle from such a rack, because the label which distinguishes one wine bottle from another is on the body of the bottle, not at the mouth and cork.
Another problem with traditional wine racks is that they were not modular. Typical wine racks were built in large units that covered entire walls. This led to much wasted space for users who did not have enough wine to fill the rack. Modular wooden racks using dowels to create a rack, enable the same kind of storage with bottles orthogonal to a wall with only the corks readily visible. However, this assembly method allowed as much wine rack as was needed for the available space.
Subsequent art in the wine rack field disclosed racks made of wood, wire, or metal. Some were modular, but others were decorative, with a predetermined number of storage spaces. These racks offered several advantages. The racks were cheaper to produce, lightweight, portable, and easy to install. However, these racks persisted in storing the wine orthogonal to the viewer. These iterations of wine racks did not solve the key problem of making the label visible to a viewer while the bottle was still in the rack.
Later model wine racks have utilized horizontal racking, and improved on the label viewing problem. These racks held bottles parallel to the wall by using a pair of arms, one of which had a large depression to hold the body of the bottle, the other with a smaller depression to hold the neck of the bottle. (See the McCain U.S. Pat. No. 6,991,117.) The racks stored wine so that the labels were visible. A disadvantage to this system was that it required two different arms to support a bottle.
Several wine rack systems were developed that allowed some modularity, typically by stacking small wine racks next to and on top of each other, thereby creating “one” larger wine rack. These systems suffered from two flaws: first, because each unit in the modular system was itself a small wine rack, the user still often had wasted space.
For example, a typical iteration included small racks capable of holding six bottles of wine. If a user acquired only two new bottles of wine, adding a new module wasted the space for the extra four bottles.
The second problem is related to the first. Because each module was composed of a complete, smaller rack, the individual parts were not interchangeable and replaceable. If part of one module was misplaced or damaged then the entire module could become unusable. At best, space for one bottle became unusable. The consumer was typically forced to replace the entire module, not just the damaged component, because the individual components were not sold.
It is the aim of the present invention to provide a modular wine rack system that stores wine bottles so that a viewer can read the labels. It is an additional aim of the present invention to provide a rack that can be adapted to store wine horizontally, for sales displays, or at an angle, to keep the cork of a partially full bottle moist. It is a further aim of the present invention to provide a wine rack that is modular, replaceable, and inexpensive to manufacture. It is yet an additional object to provide a universal arm with uniform sized depressions that can be used as an element in a wine storage system. Such arms can have one or more depressions so that a pair of arms can support one or more bottles. Further, the depressions could be sufficiently large to support a range of bottle sizes—from magnum to splits.
Wine rack systems are created by using appropriate arm supporting elements. These arms can be wall mounted adapted to fit into peg board systems, could be fitted into wall mounted slots or could be combined with vertical posts that are fitted with a base to provide a stand alone wine storage system.